268 AUTUMN ON THE TWEED 



weight to early running fish. In many small rivers 

 autumn fish are not worth taking ; their silvered mail 

 is turned to rusty brown or blotchy grey ; their outline, 

 once a perfect model for strength and speed, is marred 

 by lengthening snout and swelling paunch. In the 

 Tweed, however, there is always a fair proportion of 

 well-shaped, well-coloured fish at least, till well on 

 in November, and their greater average size makes 

 amends. In March and April clean-run fish most 

 commonly run from eight to ten pounds, and show a 

 poor fight on heavy tackle such as is commonly used 

 in those months, especially when these fish are wearied 

 by a long ascent through strong water. In autumn 

 the case is altered. The fish which quit the sea in 

 September and October were probably only eight or ten 

 pounds in the spring, like their brethren who preceded 

 them ; but three or four months of sea fare have added 

 prodigiously to their proportions, and most of them 

 scale from fifteen to twenty pounds. 



Besides these, there are the veterans which have sur- 

 vived the perils of several seasons, comparatively few 

 in number, but weighing from thirty pounds to fifty 

 pounds each. These sockdolagers are deliberate in 

 migration: they require the whole summer to stuft' 

 their mighty carcases with sea provender sufficient to 

 carry them through the cares of matrimony in the 

 lean winter months, and seldom show in the river till 

 towards the end of the season. Their presence con- 

 tributes immensely to the excitement of autumn fishing, 

 and the sport is enhanced through means of the small 



